Page:Bench and bar of Colorado - 1917.djvu/40

36 was presiding. That the defendant killed the deceased was admitted; the plea was self-defense, and it was charged that the deceased had threatened the life of defendant with a loaded rifle. Miller seized the rifle, which was an exhibit in the case, and bringing it to bear upon the jury, charged, with a ferocious Indian yell. The jurors and everyone else in the court room except the judge, instantly became men of one mind and fled the room. Judge Hallett remained upon the bench, as imperturbable as he appears in that portrait upon the wall. The sheriff finally peeked in. Judge Hallett, calling him to the bench, said: "Mr. Sheriff, will you see if you can induce the jury to return to the court room and resume the consideration of the case, and you may assure them, sir, of the court's protection."

There was Markham, Virginia cavalier, whose learning and wit were seldom voiced standing, but who was a most formidable antagonist with pen and paper; Willard Teller, equally able and locally as well known as his more famous brother; Judge Steck, that quaint character, pioneer of California, as well as Colorado.

Judge Steck resigned from the county bench in 1883, and took offices in the old Tabor block at Sixteenth and Larimer streets, where I then had an office. Coming out of the building one day, I observed him walking with another man, whom he held by the arm, and to whom he was exhorting and gesticulating, in his pronounced and pugnacious manner, saying: "The Supreme Court will reverse it, the Supreme Court will reverse it, it's bound to reverse it." I stepped up and said: "What is that, Judge Steck, one of your decisions?"

"Yes, and a most damnably iniquitous decision it was, too!" he answered.

I wish that judges would recognize their limitations as readily when they are on the bench as when they are off. When they are off, it seems so easy.

Nor can any reference to the bar of that time omit mention of Major Edward L. Smith, urbane, soft-spoken and